My 6 year old female Choc Lab has somehow managed to break the tips off of an upper canine, and possibly both lower canines. I know it has to hurt, but she shows no signs of pain...but dogs are good at enduring and masking pain. Eating drinking playing normally, no swelling, they aren't sensitive to my touch. We just noticed it yesterday, when we came back inside after our daily exercise, and she was sitting in front of me panting, and I noticed one upper canine looked a little shorter than the other. When I checked it out, it looks like both lowers are missing the pointy tips also. I honestly don't know how long they've been like that. I called our vet immediately, and have an appointment on monday, but after a long sleepless night (me, not her) filled with googling dog teeth, I'm pretty sure they're going to refer her to a dental specialist for root canals, and google says nearest one is in Oshkosh (we're near Eagle River).

Any recommendations?

I think that's probably your closest bet.

I use Animal Healthcare in Rhinelander for most needs, but there's one over in Phillips/Park Falls that we used for post-surgical PT that was pretty damn well-equipped. They might be able to do dental.

Here's their info;
Attached File

@rfb45colt

Here's the link to their site;

North Country Vet

Thanks for the link. I looked it over and neither doctor is a "AVDC board certified" animal dentist, so I doubt they do root canals. My regular vet should know where a good one is if they can't do what she needs. Co-incidentally, her husband is a dentist (for people).

I'm looking for advice from anyone who has been through this. I was up half the night watching canine root canal videos on youtube, doing research. Root canal therapy is the very best option to save the teeth. It appears it's just the tips broke off, and no linear fractures down to the gum line, so she's a perfect candidate for it.

The one down in Antigo, down a road across from Fleet Farm, is a good one too. I took my prior Lab down there for an emergency ultrasound back in late 2016, on a referral from my vet. They took her in same day I called, no waiting. I was impressed with them.

Are they broken, or worn down?

My shepherd had worn down canine's from chewing on tennis balls.  Apparently the outer coating on tennis balls is very abrasive.

I think they're broken. Edges are too sharp to be from wear. And she doesn't even like tennis balls. I bought her a 4 pack the day we brought her home, exactly 3 years ago (April 17, 2019) and they look like new. Her favorite toy is a thing called a "Giggle Ball". It's a hard rubber/plastic ball about 6" in diameter, with noise makers inside, that sound like a giggle when it rolls. She has to pick it up with her canines, so I suspect that may have been the culprit. She's on her 4th one, she destroyed the first 3 just by playing with them. If you drop one on the blacktop driveway in the cold, it'll crack.

When we rescued "adopted" her from her 2nd owner, who only had her 7 months (just long enough to have a litter of 10 that sold for $750 ea), it was only 5 days after her last puppy was taken from her, so she was very despondent and depressed ("post partum"?). She'd just lay in a corner and look scared & sad all day. We had her at the vet, and she was in perfect health, other than the worms new mom's usually have. That Giggle Ball was the only toy she had any interest in for the first 3 months. It brought her out of her funk. Now she's a normal, VERY HAPPY, dog for the first time in her 6 years.

A friend of mine just gave a great review about his experience when he brought his GSD to All Creatures Veterinary Clinic in Minocqua, WI. May be worth a call.

Thanks. My granddaughter lives in Arbor Vitae and has 2 dogs, Lab mix & a Husky...and a cat and a rabbit too. I think that's where she goes. Either there or Northwoods Animal Hospital.

If you are looking to save the tooth, your best bet will be to see a vet dentist, not a regular vet.

I know. But there aren't many around... none up north or in the U.P., afaik. Which confuses me a bit. In all my "googling" and "you-tubing" of this subject, I keep reading three things over and over.

1.) This is a very common occurrence. Some vets claim to see this it at least once a week, some daily.

2.) The most common teeth to suffer this are the most important ones - a) canines, b) certain molars - those big ones used for most chewing.

3.) Extraction is an extreme last resort tactic, especially for these important teeth... and especially lower canines, which can make up 80% of lower jaw structure. Extracting canines is much more traumatic to the bone structure. Root canal therapy is the much preferred treatment, in all but very young dogs under 3 whose teeth aren't fully developed, and is 95% successful.

There are a lot of dogs in Wisconsin... and everywhere for that matter. Statistically, in WI .34 % of the 5.89 million people own a dog. Seems low to me, but that equals a minimum of 200,260, as the stat doesn't account for those that own multiple dogs, just those with a dog in the home. Virtually everyone I know has at least one, but just as many have 2 or 3. For example, there's 6 houses on my road. Between us, we have 9 dogs, only 1 person doesn't have any, 2 homes have 2, another has 3. (5 of them are Labs ).  

So if the above are all true, then there must be a lot of doggy root canals being done. Where? There's only something like 4 'board certified' vet dentists in the whole state,  and 2 or 3 at U.W in Madison. When do they sleep? https://avdc.org/find-vet-dental-specialist/ Seriously, the numbers don't add up.

One thing is for certain, there's no way I'll have them extracted, no matter the cost.